Converge Enterprise Adds Multichannel Marketing Capabilities

Converge Enterprise clients will be able to launch marketing campaigns on mediums as varied as Facebook, email, and text with the CRM company's new multichannel marketing solution. The solution also comes with unified tracking capabilities, allowing customers to monitor the effectiveness of all of their campaigns in one place.

"In the large sense of CRM, SMBs are seeking enterprise-scale solutions at an SMB price and simplicity," comments Ray Wang, principal analyst at Constellation Research, making this added functionality "of interest to the SMB community."

For Converge Enterprise itself, the new capabilities add up to a "significant release," Wang says.

Converge Enterprise will enable companies to serve the customer as they like while ensuring that the messaging remains consistent across channels. The new product features, by channel, include the following:

• SMS and Fax Marketing: Through a partnership with cloud communications company Twilio, users can fax or text customers marketing messages, as long as they also have an account with Twilio. The integration with Twilio is also what makes this level of multichannel marketing available and cost-effective for small businesses, according to Wang.
• Email marketing: Users can deliver personalized messages to customers. They can create their own templates or use ones created by Converge.
• Voice Calls: Customers will be able to create voice messages or use interactive voice response systems to reach customers. Marketing, sales, or customer support teams can upload spreadsheets of phone numbers and set up calls through their CRM systems.
• Social Marketing: From the Converge product, users can post or tweet messages on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn without having to log into each platform separately.

The multichannel marketing capabilities come at three price points. The most popular option is $29 per user per month, with a $9 per user lite option and a $59 per month premium edition.

The lower price point of Converge's product resonates with small businesses that use the CRM system. "There are no major competitors for multichannel marketing solutions in the small business market," Wangs says. "This company is the first to do this."

Manash Chaudhuri, director and CEO of Converge Enterprise, envisions the new functionalities as being able to "[increase] the changes to the business to listen and learn what customers are doing," while "[drawing] better strategies to retain and expand valuable customer relationships," in line with the end goals of CRM systems.

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